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Buxton International Festival

William Dalrymple

The Anarchy – The Relentless Rise of the East India CompanyBuxton Opera Housebutton--dates-and-timesDates & Times

In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army – what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation.

Prize-winning and bestselling author William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders.

The Company’s reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London.

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  • Duration: 1hr
  • Price: £15